Bert de Wit

I was travelling around Australia in 1995 and spent some time in Coral Bay where some English friends introduced me to the underwater beauty with snorkelling.

I spend days doing it and got frustrated that I couldn’t spend more time down there, so the seed was planted, I knew what I had to do!

It stayed @ the back of my mind for years while sorting out my life in Australia and as luck has itI befriended Frank a German guy who was a dive instructor and in 2001 I did my Open Water and soon after my Advanced Open Water.

The Nitrox course followed a few years later.

Since then I’ve been diving in W.A North and South, Queensland, Sipadan, Thailand, The Philippines, Fiji, all over Bali, the Lembeh Straight, Lombok and the Gili Islands.

I wasn’t really diving that much any more, all a buddy & I used to do was looking for crayfish and lot of times I used to finish a dive and say to my wife “I wish I had a camera soI could show you whats going on down there”.

I think I said it so many times that she got sick of it and bought me a camera for my 40th. The camera was a Sea and Sea 8000G and very hard to work with, but it still took some of my favourite photos.

I had some experience in land photography and soon worked out that the normal rules don’t really apply underwater, so I bought The Underwater Photographer by Martin Edge and experimented and Improved some.

By talking and listening to experienced UW photographers I got a better understanding and improved some more.

There is nothing easy about this hobby but if there were I would have given up a long time ago and if you get it right it is so rewarding!

At the moment I’m using a Canon G12 with a Recsea housing and a Sea and Sea YS-27 and YS-110 Strobes.

I use the Idas super wide angle dome and for macro a Dyron +7 and a GoSo +20 diopter as well as a Dyron macro wide angle lens.

For a little fine tuning of the images I use Lightroom 5.

I had heaps of fun with my mate Ron out on his boat early mornings looking for crays behind Garden Island and Carnac.

My wife Chandy started diving 2 years ago and now we do dive holidays as before they were holidays with the occasional dive.

Favourite local site would be the wreck trail as lunch and coffee is close at hand and the shark cave at Rotto but we just don’t get there enough.

Exmouth was amazing for all the big stuff, the Navy pier is fantastic.

Tulamben is a bit of a hit, we made some good friends there and it is so laid back.

I think all dives are special and we are very privileged to experience this peace away from the hectic world we live in.

2 dives stand out though, the Turtle Tomb in Sipadan which was an experience and a half and the Shark Cave at Rottnest where we sat for 40 minutes making photos and video of 10 grey nurses coming around and around! You really feel like you are intruding in their world.

One of the best things of diving and photography is that it crosses all borders of religion and racial backgrounds. Some of the most interesting people I have met on dive divetrips, while all the madness in the world continous day after day, we sit on a boat and discuss where to find the best subjects and how to shoot them properly!

So I keep on diving and practising and hopefully improve some more……

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About WAUPS

The Western Australian Underwater Photographic Society (WAUPS) is a non-profit organisation which has been in existence (and incorporated) since January, 1984.
The aims of the Society are to promote an improvement of underwater photography amongst it's members, to promote underwater photography in the community, encourage an understanding and preservation of the marine environment, share skills and ideas from within the society and from external bodies and have fun and enjoy socialising, diving and photography.